'The Sleeper and the Spindle' by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell, published by Bloomsbury in October 2014 (5/5)
This piece of work is probably the most uniquely collaborated novel I have read. Both Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have brought their incredible talents together and created this phenomenal piece of art.
I'm sure many people are aware that Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, so as soon as I saw his name on this book, I was immediately interested.
This novel is the third Neil Gaiman book I have read and I think it's safe to say that this was the most enjoyable for me. While I did thoroughly enjoy reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I just felt more intrigued by the way this novel was put together.
The way events and character are described leaves an extremely vivid image in the readers head. This didn't occur as much in this novel as I found it did in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but this novel was more heavily reliant upon the magical illustrations that Chris Riddell provided to give the reader more of a visual image.
I had never seen or heard of Chris Riddell before, so I was a bit skeptical about what to expect from his half of this book, but I quickly fell in love with each page and was not even slightly disappointed.
Every single aspect of the illustrations was sone so thoughtfully it was inspiring to me as a reader and an aspiring artist. The way Riddell used line, shape, form and tone on each page fit together in a magical way. It felt like every page was a masterpiece in itself!
Of course I should not forget to mention the presentation of this beautiful novel. From the dust jacket to the gold ink incorporated into the illustrations, I feel that Bloomsbury have truly outdone themselves for trying to make this book looks as magical as possible, and I must say, they've done a fantastic job at achieving just that!
After reading the 71 pages of this novel, I very quickly became obsessed with this book. It was a quick read for me, but an adventurous one full of twists in the story that you may not expect.
It is a very unique take on the original fairytale stories of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, with a twist that differs it from the original stories.
This novel follows the journey of a young queen and three dwarfs as they cross the kingdom in search of the princess who was the start of a terrible sickness that is sweeping over across the kingdom and putting all of its victims into an eternal sleep.
They intend to rescue the princess from the slumber that was cast upon her so that the kingdom may also awaken once again, but they aren't prepared for what they find when they finally reach the princess's tower...
I would recommend this novel to everybody. I truly feel that this is one that many people would enjoy, especially fans of fairytale re-telling a with a twist, like myself!
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